Voter ID Cards to be Mailed Wednesday

Gila County Recorder Sadie Tomerlin announces that new voter identification cards will be mailed to all active registered voters on Wednesday (July 11).

There have been changes to Congressional, Legislative, Supervisorial and College District Lines. Precincts have also changed.

The voter identification mailer also includes valuable information about upcoming election dates, proper voter identification at the polls and  permanent early voting information.

Once you receive your new card,  verify that all information is correct and destroy any old cards.

If you have any questions, contact the Gila County Recorder’s Office at 402-8735.

State's Registered Voters Now at 3.1 Million

The number of Arizona’s registered voters has increased by more than 17,000 since the last report in February.

The numbers released by Secretary of State Ken Bennett show a total of more than 3.1 million voters. Of those, 1.1 million are Repubicans, some 952,000 are Democrats and more than 1 million have either registered as independents or not designated a party preference.

Libertarians make up a little less than 1% of voters with about 22,500. About 5,000 voters are registered with the Green Party. The Americans Elect Party has enrolled 148 voters since joining the state’s other recognized political parties last year.

Poll Says Arizonans Value Education But Are Critical of System

A poll by the Morrison Institute of Public Policy finds that Arizona voters support education but are critical of the educational system.

Arizonans consider education to be among the top three issues that the governor and Legislature need to address. Education was cited by 20% of the respondents, just behind immigration and jobs.

When asked to prioritize how state money should be spent, 51% rated K-12 education as very high and 40% high priority, a total of 91%.

But when asked how well Arizona public schools are doing, only 39% said the schools are doing a good job and 6% said an excellent job. A total of 41% said the schools are doing a poor or very poor job.

Number of Arizona Independent Voters Continues to Increase

The latest voter registration figures are out and the number of independent voters continues to rise. Figures released by the Arizona Secretary of State’s office show that the number of voters without a party preference is once again higher than the number of registered Democrats.

Since voter registration figures were last released in April, more than 13,000 voters have registered without a party preference or designated an unrecognized party. During the same period, Republican registration dropped by a little more than 3,000 voters and the number of Democrats fell by nearly 8,000 voters.

In local and state elections, independent voters can generally vote in party primaries, except for the Libertarian Party’s closed primary. But independednts will not be allowed to vote in the presidential primaries on February 28.

The last day to change party prefernece to vote in the presidential primaries is January 30. But Gov. Jan Brewer has said she plans to move the election up a month.

AZ Now Has More Independents Than Democrats

Figures released by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office show that the number of Arizona voters who are not affiliated with any political party has exceeded one million for the first time. It is also the first time that the number of independent voters is more than those registered in one of the two major political parties.

As of January 1 there were more than 1,010,000 voters registered as “other” in Arizona. They make up 31.66% of Arizona’s registered voters. That is slightly more than the number of registered Democrats, which is around 1,008,600.

There are now more than 1,142,000 Republicans. But the percentage of Republicans has dropped from 37.1 to 35.8%.